LEH Expressway Financial Project Has Been Approved

ISLAMABAD: After being on hold for the last 15 years, the Leh Expressway project has been approved and will be started by the end of 2021.

Under the project, sewage of the city and cantonment areas draining into the Nullah Leh will be channeled through massive trunks to take it to the processing plant near Gorakhpur in the Adiala area of Rawalpindi.

According to the details, a separate processing plant will also be installed to treat Islamabad’s wastewater before the clean and rainwater are passed through the Nullah Leh.

The sewage movement through the trunks beneath both sides of the road will allow the flow of only clean water in Nullah Leh, including water from multiple areas of Islamabad.

The sewerage treatment plant had earlier been dropped owing to a shortage of funds. But now after 15 years, the Leh Expressway project will be built under the public-private partnership (PPP) model, costing around Rs70 billion. The federal government will approve the financial and technical proposals following the formal approval of the PC-1.

Federal and Punjab governments will equally share Rs 24 billion for land acquisition, while the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will fund Rs10 billion for the installation of the sewerage treatment plant. 

Gulzar Hussain Shah (Commissioner of Rawalpindi) has shown a significant interest in developing the project since he has assumed the additional command of the Director-General (DG) of the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA).

For the final approval, the RDA has decided to forward the Leh Expressway project concept (PC-1) to the federal government, which the Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP) has already approved.